Senator Jerry Moran, R-Kan has plan for exempting broadband grants from federal taxes

Broadband Breakfast reports

Senator Jerry Moran, R-Kan., is pushing to exempt broadband grants from federal taxes through an upcoming reconciliation package.

“Reconciliation is probably the only possibility,” Moran said of his Broadband Grant Tax Treatment Act at the INCOMPAS Policy Summit on Tuesday. “So it needs to happen there, and it’s a modest amount of money — $400 million or so.”

The bill, co-sponsored by Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., seeks to exempt federal broadband grants from income taxation. Moran criticized the existing policy, noting that taxing grant funds effectively strips away 20-30% of the money intended for broadband expansion.